[Reprinted from The Arena, New York, November, 1902.] 


SOME THOUGHTS ON PUBLIC REFORM. 

P UBLIC reform concerns itself with questions, methods, 
and policies pertaining to the improvement of the public 
service. It assumes-—not an unwarranted assumption—that 
conditions exist in the administration of public affairs that are 
not ideal; that these conditions, or some of them at least, are 
susceptible of certain and exact reformation and improvement; 
that it is the particular business of the reform movement to 
secure, or make operative, better conditions in public affairs. 
Public reform, therefore, may be defined to be a sincere attempt 
to promote the best administration of public affairs consonant 
with our representative form of government. It includes alike 
in its consideration measures that may be proposed to secure 
the desired end and men to carry such measures into execution. 
Indeed, it would be difficult to conceive of any effort in behalf 
of the advancement of present conditions, social, political, or 
economical, that would divorce the one from the other. 

A meritorious measure, for instance, which sought to estab¬ 
lish the more equal and equitable distribution of the burdens 
of government by radical changes in the laws of taxation, 
would scarcely receive the cordial support of a large constitu¬ 
ency if it were generally understood and believed that its most 
enthusiastic friends and champions were known to be members 
of that class of patriots ( ?) who are the most skilful and astute 
tax-dodgers. The disinterestedness and sincerity of the so- 
called tax-reformers would be at once challenged. So, too, 
another scheme, seeking to attain the same end, plausible, it 
may be, but manifestly impracticable, proposed by a well-mean¬ 
ing and honest man, is defeated because of want of merit in the 
suggested plan. Thus it will be seen that any attempt at public 
reform takes into account both men and measures. They are, 
and of necessity must be, '‘one and inseparable.’’ 

It is doubtless true that adverse criticisms, however intelli- 




2 



gent, however honest, however just, are rarely welcomed by 
those who hear or read them, and are frequently made the sub¬ 
ject of vituperation and abuse; and the motives that prompt 
them are often impugned, sometimes belittled, and not rarely 
distorted or condemned. 

Now, the very idea of reform involves adverse criticism, and 
public reform involves the criticism of public affairs. It is evi¬ 
dent, therefore, that any proposition that starts out with the 
assumption of condemnation of existing conditions in govern¬ 
mental matters will be unable to obtain a hearing unless there 
is something intrinsically meritorious in the proposition or 
worthy in its promoters, or both. 

In a republic, the prevailing opinion seems to be that in public 
affairs the acme of human perfection is reached, and any at¬ 
tempt to discount this idea is always viewed with suspicion and 
distrust; hence, to go before the American public with a sug¬ 
gestion for real reform in public affairs requires, not only cour¬ 
age, but the highest order of statesmanship, positive rather than 
negative qualities, constructive and creative rather than de¬ 
structive talent. Any one can find fault. But not only to dis¬ 
cover the existing evil in our government, but to devise the 
adequate remedy for that evil, so that greater evils do not 
supervene, requires the highest order of intellect. The true 
reformer is such a person. 

In the discussion of the means to be invoked in order to 
secure a better public service, it will be necessary to consider, 
somewhat, the present state of public affairs; and especially 
with reference to such conditions as it is believed, from the 
viewpoint of this paper, do actually exist, and as to some of 
which the suggestions herein may specifically relate. It would 
be exceedingly difficult to propose solutions, or even to indicate 
what may be deemed to be the effective weapons tending toward 
such solutions, however comprehensive or unique, until the 
problems themselves have been first stated. 

In other plain words, a reform movement in public affairs, 
if it is to be even tolerably successful, must indicate the exist¬ 
ence of an actual evil; it must propose what appeals to the aver- 


GiftJ 



{ Je^05 





3 


age mind as an adequate remedy. Nor is this all. It must 
prove to a legal certainty the existence of the evil indicated. 
Merely saying that there is an evil is not enough. And it must 
provide the means and methods for making effective the appro¬ 
priate remedy. Finding fault with existing conditions will not 
be sufficient. It is just such a policy or attitude that serves to 
apprise the public evil-doer that he is being distrusted, and that 
he must be more cautious and circumspect in his methods of 
procedure. A loyal and intelligent constituency, asked to sup¬ 
port a movement in the interest of good government, has a right 
to demand more than this. A reform movement, therefore, if 
it is to be worthy the name, must embody and include in its 
missionaries and friends all the essential qualities that make for 
true statesmanship—that quality which sees not only the exist¬ 
ing evil in human government, but also the altogether sufficient 
remedy; that quality which is able to destroy the one and to 
construct the other in its stead, without permitting greater evils 
to intervene than it is sought to extirpate. 

There is much said nowadays, and perhaps there is even more 
written, about corruption in official life. It is freely charged 
that the average individual in office, and that means the great 
majority of the office-holding class, is always for sale in dollars 
and cents; that official influence is a thoroughly purchasable 
commodity; that official integrity is, practically, an unknown 
quantity; that an honest man in business or professional life be¬ 
comes at once a rascal and a criminal so soon as his garments 
become contaminated with the political arena. These are very 
grave charges, and alarming if true. That there is more truth 
in the foregoing statements than many of us are willing to con 
cede is doubtless capable of exact proof. How to make such 
proof effective is one of the problems with which we are now 
dealing. 

In conversing with a prominent business man about munici¬ 
pal matters in a western city, the writer was assured that the 
administration of the city affairs was very largely dictated by 
what he termed the “hold-up policy,’’ pure and simple. When 
asked to explain this “policy,’’ he did so in the following man- 


4 


ner: A concession is asked of the common council, or other 
appropriate body or board, as, for instance, permission to ex¬ 
tend a show-window over the side-walk, or to extend a power 
system from one building to another, necessitating the use of a 
public thoroughfare, or to get an appropriation for a particular 
purpose, which purpose is believed to advance the interests of 
the individual working for it. Now, these concessions can never 
become operative unless the parties seeking them are ready to 
“come down” with the hard cash for them. It is the “hold-up” 
policy. Tribute money for the protection of gambling-hells 
and brothels is another form of the same “hold-up” plan. 
Votes at the polls are also purchasable, and the price is some¬ 
times extremely low. It may be the promise of office, a few dol¬ 
lars in money, an insignificant present, a drink of liquor, a cigar, 
a receipt for a worthless debt—any, or a part, or all of these. 
The buyer is denominated a shrewd political “boss,” and the 
seller thinks he is as well oif anyway. Both speak boastingly 
of the transaction, and neither meets with the condemnation of 
his fellow-citizens, as he should. Thus it is that bribery and 
corruption go on in public life, and the rottenness of the public 
service continues unabated. Reports are given out that a por¬ 
tion of the school fund has been diverted from its proper object 
without any authority of law, and a treasurer is charged in a 
loose and haphazard way with having paid out the public 
moneys illegally. 

These are samples of conditions that actually exist in public 
affairs to-day. They emphasize the need of radical change. 
What is the significance of them ? Always absolute and some¬ 
times irreparable loss to the best interests of the public service. 
Why? Because, at most, it results generally in but a change 
of rascals in oihce, not to a defeat of the rascals. 

It is in connection with such general, wholesale, and indefinite 
but measurably truthful charges as to existing conditions that 
one of the most effective weapons of genuine reform can ac¬ 
complish much good by developing what are the facts in a par¬ 
ticular case. The truth is that so much is said about official 
malfeasance or misfeasance, and so little is established to a 


5 


certainty, that the public has become indifferent, not justly or 
wisely it may be, but nevertheless indifferent, and inclined to 
discount all statements made along this line and to disbelieve 
most of them. 

This is our contention: The exposure of official corruption 
and the pointing out of defects in the methods and systems in 
use in the administration of public affairs are, when rightly 
and wisely used, incontestably the most effective instruments 
tending, and naturally tending, to promote genuine public re¬ 
form. Indeed, they cannot be permanently overwhelmed. 

One writer, in speaking of municipal corruption, says: “The 
remedies that seem to me likely to be most effective are wide 
publicity of the conditions that invite corruption and careful 
scrutiny of the financial condition of candidates.” This writer 
seems to think that an independently rich man will be less in¬ 
clined to sell his official influence than another man who is 
hopelessly involved in financial difficulties. 

Another writer, in discussing methods and remedies to re¬ 
form abuses in voting, says: “There should be absolute 
frankness and plain dealing with ourselves and others. . . . 

We need to learn the exact facts before a remedy can be de¬ 
vised. And so long as local vanity and commonwealth pride 
deter people from seeing and admitting the truth concerning 
their own States, we shall be and continue to be irreformable. 
The truest friend of any locality is the man who, in a proper 
spirit, tells the truth to that locality.” 

This policy of exposure, however, must be used with wise 
judgment and great caution. Every statement should be so 
well fortified with what can be proved, specifically, at any time 
and at any proper place, that it carries conviction with it. This 
method supplants mere rumor and suspicion with hard, cold, 
convincing facts. It forms the basis of intelligent action on the 
part of the honest voter. And the honest voter is, after all, 
always in the majority. This method dignifies the truth and 
pushes it to the front; it denounces falsehood and relegates it 
to the rear. 

Undoubtedly, to make this weapon of public reform really 


8 


reform in keeping with the true spirit of democracy, for it can 
he made effective in the hands of the many as well as of the 
few, and its power can he felt if wielded hy only a single 
person. 

The ballot may be made an effective -weapon of public reform* 
But its efficiency is confined to its use by the individual, not to 
its use through the machine of a political party. For no politi¬ 
cal party can be truly denominated a reform party, and no 
genuine reform is secured as a result of the induction into 
power of a political party; nor can it be truthfully said that any 
distinctively reform movement was ever inaugurated and prose¬ 
cuted by a political party. It is conceded that political parties 
may have done something to intensify the conditions that made 
a reformatory effort possible, even successful; but this was in¬ 
cidental, not primary. Until the despotism of parties is greatly 
lessened, the ballot will hardly be an effective weapon of re¬ 
form through the political machine. Public reform will never 
find its origin or momentum in them as now organized and 
manipulated. Indeed, much of the real work of reform finds 
its most fertile field in one or more of the existing political 
parties. It is the rottenness and corruption that pervade the 
avenues of political parties that make the need of the true re¬ 
former. It would be too much to hope or expect that a politi¬ 
cal party would consent to assist in an organized or covert 
raid upon itself. 

There is a class of blind adherents to a political party who 
are intelligent and honest, but who seem careless and lukewarm 
if not positively indifferent to their civic duty when it comes to 
public affairs. They lack intelligent interest. They neither 
study politics nor concern themselves in the current public 
questions of the day. They have independent convictions, and 
if once aroused to political activity they could be made effective 
weapons of reform. They are too valuable a class to be out of 
political harness, at least in the better sense of the adjective 
qualification. But it is difficult to make them feel that in a 
democracy they owe the State a civic duty—a duty that cannot 
be delegated and that cannot be adequately discharged in a mere 


5 


certainty, that the public has become indifferent, not justly or 
wisely it may be, but nevertheless indifferent, and inclined to 
discount all statements made along this line and to disbelieve 
most of them. 

This is our contention: The exposure of official corruption 
and the pointing out of defects in the methods and systems in 
use in the administration of public affairs are, when rightly 
and wisely used, incontestably the most effective instruments 
tending, and naturally tending, to promote genuine public re¬ 
form. Indeed, they cannot be permanently overwhelmed. 

One writer, in speaking of municipal corruption, says : “The 
remedies that seem to me likely to be most effective are wide 
publicity of the conditions that invite corruption and careful 
scrutiny of the financial condition of candidates.” This writer 
seems to think that an independently rich man will be less in¬ 
clined to sell his official influence than another man who is 
hopelessly involved in financial difficulties. 

Another writer, in discussing methods and remedies to re¬ 
form abuses in voting, says: “There should be absolute 
frankness and plain dealing with ourselves and others. . . . 

We need to learn the exact facts before a remedy can be de¬ 
vised. And so long as local vanity and commonwealth pride 
deter people from seeing and admitting the truth concerning 
their own States, we shall be and continue to be irreformable. 
The truest friend of any locality is the man who, in a proper 
spirit, tells the truth to that locality.” 

This policy of exposure, however, must be used with wise 
judgment and great caution. Every statement should be so 
well fortified with what can be proved, specifically, at any time 
and at any proper place, that it carries conviction with it. This 
method supplants mere rumor and suspicion with hard, cold, 
convincing facts. It forms the basis of intelligent action on the 
part of the honest voter. And the honest voter is, after all, 
always in the majority. This method dignifies the truth and 
pushes it to the front; it denounces falsehood and relegates it 
to the rear. 

Undoubtedly, to make this weapon of public reform really 


8 


reform in keeping with the true spirit of democracy, for it can 
he made effective in the hands of the many as well as of the 
few, and its power can he felt if wielded hy only a single 
person. 

The ballot may be made an effective weapon of public reform. 

But its efficiency is confined to its use by the individual, not to 
its use through the machine of a political party. For no politi¬ 
cal party can be truly denominated a reform party, and na 
genuine reform is secured as a result of the induction into 
power of a political party; nor can it be truthfully said that any 
distinctively reform movement was ever inaugurated and prose¬ 
cuted by a political party. It is conceded that political parties 
may have done something to intensify the conditions that made 
a reformatory effort possible, even successful; but this was in¬ 
cidental, not primary. Until the despotism of parties is greatly 
lessened, the ballot will hardly be an effective weapon of re¬ 
form through the political machine. Public reform will never 
find its origin or momentum in them as now organized and 
manipulated. Indeed, much of the real work of reform finds 
its most fertile field in one or more of the existing political 
parties. It is the rottenness and corruption that pervade the 
avenues of political parties that make the need of the true re¬ 
former. It would be too much to hope or expect that a politi¬ 
cal party would consent to assist in an organized or covert 
raid upon itself. 

There is a class of blind adherents to a political party who [ / 
are intelligent and honest, but who seem careless and lukewarm 'v 
if not positively indifferent to their civic duty when it comes to 
public affairs. They lack intelligent interest. They neither 
study politics nor concern themselves in the current public 
questions of the day. They have independent convictions, and 
if once aroused to political activity they could be made effective 
weapons of reform. They are too valuable a class to be out of 
political harness, at least in the better sense of the adjective 
qualification. But it is difficult to make them feel that in a 
democracy they owe the State a civic duty—a duty that cannot 
be delegated and that cannot be adequately discharged in a mere 


9 


passive, half-hearted, and careless manner. The disposition of 
many of them not to attend the caucuses, the primaries, and the 
polls is a distinct loss to the cause of good government, and 
cannot be too strongly deprecated. Many of this class go so 
far in their manifestations of indifference as not to vote at all. 
The repeater, so called, who votes, or attempts to vote, more 
than once, is called a criminal, and is treated and punished as 
such. We call this meting out justice to the wicked. But how 
much worse is such a one, from a purely moral point of view, 
than that other citizen in a representative form of government 
who, for no just or patriotic reason, declines to vote at all? 

Legislation is a means of reform. It supplies the foundation 
for definite action. A reform movement will hardly succeed 
unless it be well sustained by law. Legislation, however, is not 
the panacea for all the ills found in public affairs, and it is some¬ 
times but the crystallization into statutory enactment of pioneer 
effort in behalf of good government. It gives form and em¬ 
phasis to public opinion, and when dictated by sound judgment 
augments the effectiveness of other reformatory endeavors. 
Legislation that gives the government authority to examine the 
books of quasi-public corporations, for purposes of a purely 
public nature—as to determine the amount of earnings, in order 
to fix the rate of taxation, or for the purpose of fixing rates of 
transportation—is reform legislation of the positive kind. But 
it is patent to most of us that much faulty legislation is placed 
on our statute-books, supposedly in the interest of good govern¬ 
ment. This legislation, however, is so narrow, and paternal, 
* and puritanical, in its nature and purpose, as scarcely to furnish 
a pretext for reform action. It is certainly legislation of a most 
reprehensible type. The Connecticut Blue Laws and prohibi¬ 
tory liquor laws are samples of legislation of the reprehensible 
character. 

The most effective reform never comes from or through or¬ 
ganized effort in the first instance. It is the individual effort 
that counts. It is a mistaken notion that in organization is 
strength in reformatory work. If the reform sought is genuine, 
if the evil is not visionary, if the reformer is wholly unselfish 


lO 


and sincere, then the movement for better government is not 
only inherently right but is also impregnable, so far at least as 
ultimate results are concerned. It is the want of ; incerity and 
constructive ability in the average reformer that casts a halo 
of suspicion and doubt upon the work championed by him. It 
is the absence of well-directed and statesmanlike efforts against 
patent evils of large proportions that make public reform so 
uncertain and slow. 

The very idea of reform is distasteful to the average Ameri¬ 
can citizen. It asks for the recognition of conditions that 
the loyal citizen dislikes to concede—conditions that he is un¬ 
willing to believe exist in public life. It is only when the proofs 
are forthcoming, the truth of which is guaranteed by men who 
have the confidence of the public, that encouragement and sup¬ 
port will be extended to purely reform effort. The reform idea 
involves so much that is purely chimerical, and numbers among 
its most enthusiastic and zealous friends so large an army of 
malcontents, hypocrites, and knaves, that the wonder is that the 
movement has been able successfully to withstand the ^‘inflic¬ 
tion” of its indiscreet and unworthy friends. 

Effective reform, real, substantial, and worthy, must be 
wrought out by tjie people as a whole. A class cannot and 
ought not to do it. It is only as the great mass can be impressed 
with the need for these changed conditions that they will be 
taken up and carried into the practical affairs of the public 
service. And it is to the common people after all, to the so- 
called middle class of our citizens, that the reformer must 
chiefly look for aid and support in making operative better gov¬ 
ernmental conditions. The wealthier classes, the multi-million¬ 
aires, will not do it; the low, and ignorant, and vicious cannot 
and should not do it. 

Duane Mowry. 

Milwaukee, Wis. 


- HEALTH I 


HARMONY! 


HAPPINESS !* 


I “MIND” I 


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